Jaeger
by CarrieVS
Summary: Two young Jedi must face the Dark Side, and decisions they never imagined when their training began, as a long-hidden secret emerges. Will they survive? Will their friendship? Set around 700BBY.
1. Chapter 1

**_Author's note:_** _Although I wrote the words, it would not be fair to call this story mine alone; it's a joint production which I could not manage without my good friend Marcuse._

 _I don't consider this AU, but I will be altering the Sith line to insert a couple of OCs, the Belletani are my own invention although for the time being I inserted them onto a canonical planet, and the ending might alter the established EU to explain a minor plot hole._

* * *

The children sparred in the ring. The taller of the two was quick, and accurate, but she was sweating with effort while her young opponent moved one step for every three of hers. His lightsabre moved, and hers was lunging just where he blocked, skittering harmlessly aside.

She took two paces backwards, and both combatants waited, sabres at the ready. One balanced on her toes, almost trembling in anticipation, and sucked in hungry breaths. Twice her head dipped, facing the other with the broad span of her horns, but she straightened up. He stood all but motionless, and the girl's patience broke first.

She struck again, springing forward and bringing the blade around in an arc. The little boy's sabre was already moving to intercept, and caught hers, forcing it up and sideways. She was off-balance when she landed, and now he made an offensive stroke, which she evaded by a hair's breadth. Unable to recover her stance and parry, she flung herself to the floor and rolled to the side, getting back to her feet in a fluid movement, almost behind him.

He had begun to turn as she hit the floor, and faced her again, still not out of breath.

There was another lull, and Kaitos could see the girl trying to stay as calm as her opponent, slowing her breathing. Her eyes closed, and the boy made his first unprovoked attack. Reflexes, not sense, almost saved her, but his blade skimmed down hers, which flickered as she momentarily released it. Fingers stinging from the burn of the practice sabre, she caught the hilt before it hit the floor and hopped backward a step, buying herself a breathing space.

She took the offense again, her stroke a little slower than before as she feinted to the right. The boy didn't try to parry. His lightsabre moved a little to her left in readiness as she paused for an instant, and then struck right again. He was moving back again but she was quicker, and scored her first burn of the bout on his ribs before darting away from his counterstroke.

He still held his weapon but his free hand went to his side and his eyes left his adversary's sword-tip. She darted forward again, with no hint of beginning to tire. By the time he recovered she was inside his guard, but by chance or design his attempt to block became a strike that caught her upper arm an instant after hers made contact with his hip.

This time he kept his eyes on her and held his sabre at the ready, though as he took two steps back his pace was uneven. The girl showed no sign of feeling the blow, and did not retreat. He blocked her first rush, and she needed all her speed to dodge as he slashed at her body. The next hit would end the fight.

She was breathing hard now, but the boy's face was flushed as well. She struck out straight in front of her in a downwards arc and he blocked, the lightsabres meeting squarely, but she continued to push against it. He braced himself against her greater weight, pushing up and out, and then her blade flickered off.

The strain released, the boy staggered forwards, his sword-arm swinging wildly up and harmlessly to the side as she ducked under it. She had reactivated her lightsabre but seemed to be unbalanced by the move as well, stepping forwards with her head down.

As the crown of her head caught her opponent heavily in the midriff, she twisted sharply, and sent him sideways as well as backwards, landing hard.

She recovered her balance while he was still flat on his back, and slashed down at the hand still holding his sabre. He was not too stunned to whip his arm away, but had released his grip and she kicked his weapon away to a corner of the room.

'Andiana-' the instructor reproved, but she did not give any sign of hearing. She stood over the boy, panting but keeping unblinking eye contact, until he held up his hands.

Andiana's face relaxed into a smile. Her blade flickered off, and she seized his hand in her scaled red one and hauled him to his feet. He put a hand to his shoulder.

'Did I hurt you?'

The boy winced, but then smiled back, 'Only a little. That was clever.'

'Are you fit to continue, Anton?' asked the instructor. Kaitos looked up in surprise as the girl exclaimed

'I beat him!'

The boy walked to the corner and hesitantly picked up his weapon. He turned back to face the others but didn't move.

'This is a duel, Andiana, not a brawl. You were told to use your lightsabre. The rule was three burns to win, you have scored two.'

Wordlessly, the girl pushed the training lightsabre into her belt and turned away. Between her reddish scales Kaitos could see her skin flushing to the same shade. She seemed to hang her head, and then with explosive speed she ran straight towards the wall.

The sound made Kaitos wince but the youngling did not seem so much as dazed by the impact on the thick skullcap formed by the base of her horns. She backed away several paces and lowered her head again.

The instructor seized her by the shoulders. She wrenched herself free with a jerk and stood, glaring at him.

'Andiana Rengen, how do you hope to become a knight if you will not control your temper?'

Andiana stood for the space of half a dozen breaths and then turned and walked away without a word. yGrev Berand shook his head,

'That one will not learn discipline. She indulges her anger.'

The boy glanced at the door and timidly back at his teacher.

'You may go, Anton. You fought well today,'

Andy beat me.'

'You fought well.' Anton walked away.

'He is correct, yGrev,' said Kaitos. 'I might have let the win stand, myself.'

'With another student, very likely,' Berand replied. 'But it is not Rengen's fighting ability that is in doubt.

'If it was only that she is wilful and angry, that would be one thing; she is hardly the only one.' He sighed, 'she does not try. She would rather slam her head against the wall than try to calm herself and she is not so young that such temper tantrums are excusable.'

Kaitos nodded slowly and the two masters were silent for a moment. The younger man went on, 'The boy, now. He is strong in the Force, you agree? Not many of our initiates can keep up with Andiana, and he can't match her for speed or stamina – or cunning.'

'An impressive performance,' Kaitos agreed.

'He understands the Jedi values as well, and he's gifted in skills other than combat. The girl, she is a fighter. Anton Reska will be a Jedi.'

'You believe he would be a good match for me.'

'His ways are much like yours, Kaitos. And I want to see him trained by a true master; he has great potential if he is taught well.'

Kaitos raised an eyebrow, 'Is that flattery?'

'It's truth.'

'I think I will go and speak with the younglings.'

* * *

A heavy thud told Kaitos where to find Andiana. She was alone in a small courtyard open to the air, pacing in circles and from time to time charging at the wall. She didn't notice him at first. A low wall circled the courtyard, broken by pathways. He sat down on its broad, benchlike top.

Andiana noticed the intrusion into her sanctuary with a grimace of annoyance, and then stopped short in recognition.

Kaitos acknowledged her notice with a polite nod, 'I am Kaitos Ackamar.'

'I know.' Andiana spoke curtly. After a pause she added 'Master,' and finally, Andiana Rengen.'

'I know.'

This brought a smile from the girl, for a moment.

'I did beat Anton, and I'm not sorry about how.'

'Your teacher agrees. If young Anton had beaten you in such a way, he would have allowed it.'

Andiana's yellow eyes opened wider.

'He would admit it to you himself, if you spoke to him about it. He speaks highly of your combat skills.'

'He didn't want me to fight Anton today. He wanted him to win in front of you. But none of the others wanted to lose in front of you. Anton can beat any of them.'

'But you can beat him.'

'Sometimes. He's as good as I am, I just got the best of it today.' She turned away and began to pace the courtyard again. 'Master Berand thinks I only use my horns when I'm angry. He wants me to forget I have them.' There was silence for a moment. Kaitos picked up a handful of the small stones that covered the paths of the courtyard, and let them trickle idly through his fingers. Andiana burst out, 'I know he thinks I only didn't want to be beaten in front of you.'

Kaitos raised his eyebrows a fraction but let her continue, 'I wouldn't mind losing, I wouldn't. And I never wanted to show Anton up or anything.' Her brow furrowed in anxiety and she spoke quickly, 'He'd have beaten me another time. He wins as often as I do.'

'I suppose you train against him often,' Kaitos interjected. 'you defend yourself well against the left hand.'

A genuine smile broke over the girl's face. 'I like fighting him. The others hardly ever give me a challenge. Anton likes to fight me too.' Her face clouded again. 'I didn't just beat him with brute force.'

'It was a good trick.'

'I could have used my sabre after I got past his guard, it just wasn't what I thought of first. If I'd been thinking about hitting him he'd have sensed it, but if I just tried to get my blade past his, he might miss it.'

'It can be as important to think about how an opponent uses the Force as to use it yourself.'

'It's just the same, to use my horns, as a practice lightsabre. If I was grown and my horns were sharpened, that would have cut him. And I could have broken his ribs if I'd tried.'

Kaitos nodded slowly. Andiana resumed pacing.

'Do you believe Master yGrev would have disallowed it if you had not been in a training bout – in a contest?'

The girl did not reply.

'He does not claim it wasn't a fair victory. He disallowed it because it wasn't the lesson he set you to learn. He knows you can fight, but he wanted you to fight the way he told you to.'

Andiana paused in her track and her horns dipped. But she straightened up and faced Kaitos. 'I am Belletani, my horns are part of me. Why should I not use the gifts I've been given? He thinks that I only use them in anger and I can't be a Jedi unless I stop being Belletani. I won't.'

She stood for a dozen heartbeats, glaring, and then charged at the wall again. The impact made Kaitos wince.

'Does that truly not hurt?'

'It would hurt you. I'm made for it. The wall doesn't yield like if I was butting heads with another person, but then they'd be running too so there would be twice the force, so it's about the same. I know it's hard to believe it. No-one else believes I would do that without being too angry to control myself. Did Berand say I was having a tantrum?'

'It did look that way,' Kaitos admitted, 'to a human. I don't know much of the Belletani. Perhaps you will teach me something?'

Andiana sat down opposite Kaitos. 'I was angry. But in a tantrum you scream and hit things and make yourself angrier. A zayifka wouldn't slam their head into the wall for any other reason, but Belletani do. I'm not hurting myself or trying to damage things or shock anyone.

'Besides, it isn't just for anger. Belletani children butt heads when they're excited, friends do when they're glad to see each other. It's not violence. It's like saying you shouldn't smile or frown because you should control your emotions.

'I do get angry, sometimes. But I do try and control it. I have the fire of Corron in me.' Seeing Kaitos' questioning expression she went on, 'It's just a story. Well not just a story, but...'

'A myth?'

'Yes. Corron is a volcano in the heart of the Southern Desert on Klatooine. It's sacred, I guess. They say that the God who made us put a little of its fire in the heart of each one of us, so we could endure the burning desert.' She bit her tongue, 'it's just a story.'

'Most myths have a grain of truth to them,' Kaitos replied. 'I think you come of a fierce people, who were shaped so by a fierce land. Humans came originally from Coruscant, when it was a planet of oceans, and I was born in a land of rivers and green grass. In a way, the fires of Klatooine's deserts run in your veins, and the quiet waters of Dantooine in mine.'

Andiana smiled. Kaitos nodded again. He stood up. 'I think I will go and speak with your young opponent.'

'Anton will be a good padawan. He'll be sorry he has to go before the tournament, though. He hasn't been in one. I was last year, it was fun, but I'll be thirteen before this year's.'

* * *

Anton was trying to suppress a grin. Andy did her best to smile, and fidgeted where she stood.

Kaitos smiled, 'I hoped I might find you together. I've talked with your teachers, and they have agreed.' He held out a hand, 'Andiana Rengen, I would like to take you as my Padawan learner.'

Andy took a step back, her mouth slightly open. Her horns dipped, but she immediately looked up again, 'You were supposed to pick Anton.' She looked from the white-haired master to the little boy, whose cheeks were dimpled in a smile.

'That was, I think, what was expected of me.'

'He liked you better, Andy,' Anton broke in. 'I get to stay here and be in the tournament.'

Andy's eyes narrowed. 'I told you, I'm not better than him. I just won one fight, and he's better at everything else. And he's like you, a lot.' She paused to draw breath, but then shut her mouth and glared at Kaitos.

'Do you not want this?' The master asked, 'If you don't want to be trained or you don't want me to train you,'

'No!' The girl lowered her head again, but stayed where she was. 'I do want to be a Jedi. But not...' she glanced at Anton and bit her lip.

Kaitos nodded. Andy looked up at him, her forehead creased. 'I don't know that I would have taken your friend as an apprentice if you had not been here, or that I would if you refused. I did not choose you because you won that fight. And do you truly think that in more than two years and a half an initiate with so much promise will not find a master to train him?' Andy opened her mouth, but closed it again when he held up a hand.

'No, I did not decide to take you on because you will be too old in less than two months. It would be no favour to you if I undertook to train you when we were not suited to each other, or against the will of the Force.

'Young Anton and I are somewhat alike, it is true. You and I are quite different, as are the two of you, and from what I see you make a good partnership, no?

'I think we will complement each other. No doubt with Anton as my padawan we would have very few disagreements, but we would both have the same approach, and then we would never find out if there was a better way, and neither of us would learn as much as we could. Fire and water together are needed to forge good steel.'

He held out his hand again, and Andy took it.


	2. Chapter 2

**_Author's note:_** _I'm not as confident about this chapter, so I'd particularly appreciate feedback here. I intend to re-touch the entire story after I've finished it, so please feel free to critique this as a draft._

* * *

Andy flicked her braid over her shoulder. A minute later she pulled it back in front of her collarbone, running it through her fingers.

'Is it the braid that feels strange, or the thought of leaving the Temple?'

She looked up.

'You will be used to it soon enough. But we won't be leaving yet: you have one more lesson first.'

Andy looked questioningly at her master, and then her face lit up. 'My lightsabre!'

Kaitos nodded. 'You have crystals?'

'I got them almost a year ago.' She fumbled inside the collar of her robe and drew out a small cloth bundle tied with a cord that held it around her neck. Unwrapping it, she spilled three pale blue shards into her hand. With a slight hesitation, she held them out.

Kaitos eased himself onto the bench where she sat, and took the crystals from her with careful hands. He turned them over in his palm, and held one up to the light.

'From Ilum?'

'Where else?'

'Adega, Dantooine. Other places.' He touched the hilt of his own sabre, 'I have an Adegan crystal from my homeworld. But Ilum crystals are usual.' He handed them back. 'These are good. I think this one,' touching the largest and most round with one finger, 'will be your main crystal, and the other two for focussing.'

'Will you show me how to prepare them? I didn't dare to do anything to them on my own and I couldn't ask anyone.'

Kaitos looked up in mild surprise, 'You have constructed a hilt already?'

Andy's eyes flickered from side to side. She sat up straighter, 'They never told me not to.'

'Because you concealed it?' Kaitos shook his head, but with a smile, 'Fetch it, then.'

Andy knelt to retrieve a second cloth-wrapped bundle from under her mattress. Returning, she spread it out on the bench between the two of them and laid out the pieces. Kaitos picked up the shell of the lightsabre hilt and fitted the smaller components into place. He turned it over, and gripped it as if wielding it.

He nodded as he laid it down again. 'You made this without any guidance?'

'I found some schematics. I like building machines and devices.'

'This looks good. The design is a little unorthodox, but I think it will suit your style. And it is nicely balanced. You have done well.' Andy flushed with pride, but Kaitos held up a hand. 'It was not very honest or obedient to conceal your making it because you expected to be stopped.

'But now you must insert the crystals. You were wise not to try to do that without help. I will show you what to do.'

* * *

'Master Kaitos!' Andy hurried to her master's side, her completed lightsabre in her hands. He turned to see her,

'It is finished?'

Andy nodded, smiling broadly.

'You know that ordinarily you should never ignite your sabre unless you intend to use it. But we can make an exception just now, to see how it works.' He looked around them, 'There is enough space here.'

Andy gripped the weapon, raised it over her head in the one-handed Juyo guard, and activated it. A strong beam of cobalt extended almost a full metre and a half, with very little sound. Kaitos stepped back several paces.

She gave the new blade an experimental swing, followed by a quick series of strokes. The beam flickered only once, when she released the hilt momentarily as she transferred it to her left hand, and performed a few manoeuvres a little less gracefully.

She deactivated the weapon. 'It feels good. And there's no heat.'

'You have done well, Andiana. It is also good that you have finished it: I have been speaking to the Council, they have an assignment for me, one that will most probably end in combat.'

Andy stood up straighter, hooking the lightsabre onto her belt. Her eyes gleamed yellow.

'I'm ordered to Cheravh – with you if I consider you ready – in the Mandalore Sector. A rogue clan has been causing too much trouble for the Mandalorians to handle. Their leader refused to abandon the old ways after the Reform, and turned to banditry with such of his people as didn't choose to join the New Mandalorians.

'Tell me what you know about Mandalorians.'

'They're known for their construction of buildings and devices,' Andy said without hesitation. After chewing her lip for a moment, she went on, 'The original Mandalorians were Taung, but now many species are represented. They refused to be part of the Republic but we've been at peace with them for forty years.'

Kaitos nodded. 'All correct. But that is the New Mandalorians, who the man we are going to find would term Faithless. We will not find the Republic, or our Order, respected or tolerated by him and his. Yet though they claim to follow their traditional warrior ways, this group have largely forgotten their forebears' ideas of honour in favour of making a living by theft, murder, and slavery.'

* * *

At the largest landing platform in Cheravh's only sizeable city, Kaitos kept them both inside their ship until the sun hung low in the sky. Andy unstrapped herself from her seat and turned her head to manoeuvre the span of her horns through the narrow hatchway to the compartment behind the cockpit. There were no passengers strapped into the handful of seats that could pull down from the sides, and only a few crates of essential supplies, so there was not much in her way, but she was still not far removed from turning around on the spot as she paced around the confined space.

She paused in her path and lowered her horns at the only fully vertical wall, the bulkhead dividing her from the cockpit. But hearing a sound of movement, she looked up again without making a move, to see her master framed in the narrow hatchway.

'Tell me, young one, are you excited about what we are here to do?'

Andy shut her eyes. Finally, 'Yes.'

'Well done.' Kaitos nodded, and Andy relaxed. 'It would be strange if you felt nothing at the prospect of doing, for the first time, what you have been trained for most of your life for. And if we succeed, doing the people of this sector no inconsiderable good, which is something to be pleased about even if it comes to violence, perhaps even death, to achieve it.

'I can hardly say I am without a sense of anticipation myself, to see how my young padawan undertakes her first Jedi task.' He smiled, 'but we should try not to go into battle in excitement, when we have the chance to prepare our minds as well as our plans. There is plenty of time, if we need it, to meditate, or whatever way you find best to clear your head and calm yourself.'

Andy touched the metal side of the ship with a wry smile. Seeing it, Kaitos got to his feet and placed

himself in front of the hatchway to the cockpit. 'There's no need to share your feelings with a wall, Andiana.' He lifted his hands, palms out, to around her head height, 'I think perhaps not my head, though.'

'You're zayifka,' Andy shook her head, awkwardly in the cramped confines. 'It's forbidden. I'd kill you. Or even without hitting your head, hurt you badly.'

'Andiana,' the old man said softly, 'I know what to expect. I am not putting myself in danger, I do promise you.'

Andy stared at him, then lowered her head. She hesitated, looking up again.

'Andiana, do you not trust me?' Her horns dipped once more, and this time she backed off as far as the space would allow and aimed her armoured forehead straight at her master. The shock of impact came a fraction of a second earlier than she had expected, but it was the force of the blow that shocked her, just as much power as she had in her charge, for the first time she could clearly remember, met her squarely on the skullcap of horn. She took two paces back to absorb the blow, and realised that her opposer's slight frame had moved even less.

Raising her head, she met his eyes again, and then, understanding, burst out laughing. Kaitos' laughter, deep but quiet, joined her. Then he fell silent, and she shut her eyes for a moment as she controlled her breathing.

'Ready?' Andy nodded. 'Then it's time to go.'

* * *

'I think, a glass of blue milk, if you have it.' The bartender raised his eyebrows, but fetched some milk.

Andy scowled as he made to fill a second glass, 'Not for me. Water.' She followed Kaitos to a table he selected, which gave them a good view of the large room. The bar was busy, so the two Jedi attracted little attention as they sipped their drinks.

She listened intently, with all her senses, trying to find something in dozens of conversations and minds around them that suggested information about Mandalorian bandits. She could tell that Kaitos was also scanning the room, yet he kept up a quiet conversation with her all the time.

'Speak under the other voices you can hear, and we won't be overheard in so much noise, unless anyone is especially listening to us, and we would sense that if we are on our guard. If we are talking and drinking, most likely no-one will take a second look.'

Andy nodded assent, but did not say anything.

'You don't like milk?' her master drew the conversation to casual subjects.

'Bantha milk is for Bantha calves; it makes me sick. Belletani don't drink milk after babies are weaned. And in the desert, nothing is as good as water when it's cold and fresh. '

Kaitos appeared to be lost in thought, but as he changed the position of his hands on the table, he pointed for an instant to a group on the other side of the room. Andy looked out of the corner of her eye.

'Not Darman - I don't imagine he drinks casually in bars very often, but watch them.' The three of them all wore armour, and one dour-faced man had laid a helmet with a T-shaped slit for a visor beside him on the table. 'Tell me, what do you remember of your homeworld? You must have been very young.' Kaitos went on in just the same tone, as though he had never stopped making simple conversation.

'I was nearly three when they tested me, and you grow up fast in the desert, so I wasn't a baby. I only have a few real memories of things that happened, but I didn't forget all of what I'd learned.' She fell silent, closing her eyes for a few moments. 'I remember my big brother.'

She stiffened and looked around suddenly. Kaitos laid a hand on her forearm, 'Careful now. Don't show that you're watching them. Yes, they're leaving. Finish your drink. Don't hurry.' He drained his own glass and looked around with every appearance of casual semi-interest. 'We'll follow them.' Andy put down her empty glass, but her master still motioned to her to stay seated, until he finally got up himself, slowly.

The Mandalorians were well away, but Kaitos seemed unconcerned as he led the way to the door, nodding polite thanks to a young Twi-lek who stood aside for the old man as they left.

He turned left without hesitation, Andy following him. She could not see their quarry but reached out with her mind, as Kaitos must have been doing since they left the bar, until she found their presence in the Force.

'Tell me, Andiana, what are we here to do?'

'To bring Kiran Darman to justice,' Andy answered quickly. 'Peacefully if possible. But with force if we have to, or even kill him if there is no other way to stop him.'

Kaitos did not reply immediately. Andy chewed her lip, trying to analyse her own answer, until her master at last said 'Not quite correct. Ours is a mission of peace and if we have to resort to fighting, we have not truly succeeded.'

'But you said that you expected us to have to fight.'

'I do expect it. But that does not make it a desirable outcome, young vornskr. Mandalorians like Darman are warriors, but we are not, even if we are prepared to fight when we have to. Our aim is to peacefully bring him back. We should not expect to succeed, because a man like him will be willing to fight, even against heavy odds, and unwilling to submit, but we will try.'

Andy nodded. 'We keep trying even when we think we're going to fail. I can do that.'

'Only after we have failed in our true mission, will subduing him by force be our aim. And only if it becomes impossible to do that - if we fail again - will we seek to kill him. That is still less of a failure than leaving him to continue his crimes.'

One of the three Mandalorians, the sour man with the helmet, had turned aside from the main street. The younger man and the woman continued on course.

'Follow the lone one,' Kaitos said softly. 'He has more purpose, it is more likely that he is returning to his leader than the other two.'

They began to climb uphill, through narrower streets. There were fewer shops or street traders here. The sky was deepening in colour. The two of them talked a lot less.

At last, their unwitting guide brought them to what appeared to be another tavern, but he entered through a side door, and disappeared into the innards of the building. Kaitos stopped them in the shadows of a side alley on the other side of the street.

'Is this where we'll find him?'

'It may well be,' Kaitos replied. 'If we are lucky, Darman will come out, or we will be able to get in through the side and find him alone.

'When we confront him, you should watch, and learn all you can. I will take the lead. Don't speak unless you are addressed, don't act unless I tell you to.' Seeing Andy crestfallen, he went on, 'That doesn't mean you won't be a help to me. In the first place, you are another set of eyes – this will be no training bout, Darman's followers will not simply watch if any of them are present. In the second, I may need your aid in a fight, especially if we find ourselves outnumbered. But wait for my instructions.'

'Yes, Master.'

'One more thing. Do you know what beskar is?'

'Mandalorian iron? Lightsabres can't cut it. I would have liked to use it building my sabre, but I didn't know where I'd get any. Will he use that?'

'He may do. He will be wearing armour, and he will have a sword – a beskad. Either or both may be made of the stuff, though they aren't always. So if it comes to battle, we must be ready for our weapons to be less effective than usual. He may well also have a blaster or other weapons.'

* * *

People of all kinds had been coming and going through the front door of Darman's hideout, but now a shaft of yellow light lit the darkness of the alley where the helmeted Mandalorian had gone in. Quickly, it broadened into a rectangle, which was split by the silhouette of a tall man stepping through the opened door.

Kaitos laid a hand on Andy's shoulder, and she stayed absolutely still while the figure advanced to the edge of the better-lit street. It was bulky with armour, its head concealed by a helmet. A short sword hung at its left hip. The bulging outline at the other looked like a blaster. When it had emerged far enough from the shadows for more detail to be seen, Kaitos released his restraining grip and whispered, 'Behind me.'

Andy obeyed as they moved out into the street as well. The Mandalorian looked up immediately, and turned to face them.

'Kiran Darman?'

The fighter immediately reached for his blaster.


	3. Chapter 3

Kiran Darman drew his blaster. Kaitos was already reaching for his lightsabre, but held it unlit. Andy hesitated only a moment before pulling her own weapon from her belt.

'I think you know why I'm here.'

'I knew that eventually those Faithless weaklings would send for the Republic to do their work.' The Mandalorian advanced slowly across the street and Kaitos gave ground, moving back into the darkness of the opposite side alley where they had waited for him. Andy moved backwards in step, keeping behind her master.

'So reluctant, Jedi? Not that you shouldn't be, but it was you who confronted me.' Kaitos did not reply. 'At least tell me your name: you the advantage of me.' Darman paused. His face was hidden but Andy felt that he was smirking, 'So to speak.'

The older man inclined his head, 'I am Kaitos Ackamar, Jedi Master, and my Padawan is Andiana Rengen. I have no wish to fight, but if you insist, you will find me quite ready.'

Darman took another step towards the two Jedi and moved a finger to his trigger. Kaitos shifted his weight slightly to take up a guard stance, without activating his sabre. 'You are making a mistake,' he continued, his voice laden with persuasion.

His opponent gave a snort of laughter. 'You don't really think I am feeble enough to fall for your brainwashing tricks? I'm not afraid of you, old man, with or without a performing bantha calf at your side.'

Andy took half a step forward, her horns lowered. Without taking his eyes off Darman, Kaitos put his left hand out behind him, gesturing stop, and a slight, invisible pressure held her back.

'You seem not to have done so well in teaching that one your order's cowardice, Ackamar. Perhaps I'll spare her – she'll fetch a good price.'

Kaitos moved his sabre hilt slightly, and in the same instant Darman fired. Before the bolt reached him the Jedi master had activated his blade, the emerald shaft extending directly into the path of the laser burst.

The lightsabre moved as fast as the blaster fired, but Kaitos never moved his feet. The Mandalorian ceased firing, keeping his weapon aimed steadily at Kaitos' chest. The Jedi stood on guard, his sabre alight but motionless.

A second burst of blaster fire split the silence. Darman was working harder now: he aimed a bolt at Kaitos' head, and the next at his feet forcing him to jump. But the green blade deflected every shot that would have hit, until he paused again, the smell of hot ozone wafting across the street.

He shook his head and began firing again, a tightly focussed burst of shots that Kaitos blocked easily. He took two fast steps to his right and fired another, straight past the Jedi master. Andy activated her lightsabre, too late, but the bolt never reached her. It rebounded from her master's blade as he reached across his body to block it backhanded, and then closed the gap between himself and his antagonist before Darman could recover his aim.

One cut sheared the blaster in two, and now the Mandalorian was retreating. Kaitos was a statue again, while Darman cursed and flung his useless weapon aside. Andy moved out of the shadows after her master, to stay a few paces behind him. This time, she assumed a guard stance, though she let her sabre flicker out. She glanced doubtfully at the building their target had come from.

The sound of blaster fire had apparently discouraged anyone from passing by this way, but Darman must have people in there – the man they had followed, at very least – and they would have heard too. She moved further to her left, to see better into the alleyway where the side door was.

At the sudden movement, Darman rounded on her, beskad already drawn. Andy immediately activated her lightsabre, but Kaitos was already moving to place himself between them. Andy took a step back, but stayed ready to fight.

Kaitos seemed completely relaxed, and moved almost without effort to parry the Mandalorian's first stroke. Darman twisted to avoid meeting the lightsabre blade with his own, and circled, trying to get around the sabre. Kaitos turned on the spot, always ahead. Andy thought she saw Darman stiffen as he passed between the two of them, his back to her.

He feinted left, then right, but the Jedi didn't move until he lunged in earnest. Kaitos took a step back, keeping the short sword outside his guard, and parried. Once again, the Mandalorian wrenched his blade away.

He danced backwards until Kaitos stepped forward to close the gap, when he abruptly reversed direction and attacked, aiming for the head. Again, the Jedi was ready for him, but this time Darman ducked under the block and aimed a two-handed blow with his heavy blade.

Kaitos was forced to evade, lowering his sabre and leaping backwards, out of reach of the short beskad. He recovered his guard as he straightened from landing. Darman was on the offensive again, rushing with a sweeping cut aimed at the older man's waist. Kaitos moved easily to parry. This time, the Mandalorian met the blow, the metal blade clashing with the immaterial one. The weight behind his stroke forced Kaitos' weapon inwards until he had to step back again. They were in the mouth of the alleyway now, illuminated in the gathering dusk by the green glow of the lightsabre.

Darman pressed his advantage, springing forward with a savage backhanded stroke at the Jedi's shoulder. His sword met nothing as Kaitos jumped backwards to let it fall in an unbroken arc. The lightsabre was already moving as the Mandalorian stumbled forward under the momentum of his own attack.

The beskad clattered to the ground. He retreated, flexing his gloved fingers. Kaitos moved forward and placed his foot on the fallen blade, his own weapon levelled at Darman.

'Never,' Darman growled. Unarmed, he took up a boxing stance. Both men stood without moving.

'Master, behind!'

Andy couldn't see any movement in the shadows of the alleyway, but someone was there. She ran, circling wide around the standoff between her master and the Mandalorian. Kaitos held up a hand and she stopped in her tracks. He gestured from her to where Darman stood at bay, watched her turn towards him, and span on his heel to raise his lightsabre against a blaster bolt from the darkness.

Darman made a dash for his beskad, but Andy was there and her lightsabre left a scar in the street's surface as he snatched his arm away just in time. Blaster fire sounded behind her but no shot reached them.

The sword lay on the ground beneath Andy's blade. Darman, in a half-crouch, feinted with his right hand and then as the blue lightsabre traced a parallel path to it he made a grab with his left. Andy slashed back instantly and he snatched his arm away with a cut in the vambrace. He gripped his forearm in his other hand and cursed.

Andy moved her sabre back to a low guard. Her opponent shifted slightly from side to side, but she held the blade still. She ignored his next feint left and cut down sharply as his right hand darted for his weapon.

Instead of pulling away, the Mandalorian moved his gloved hand into the path of the lightsabre and closed his fingers around it.

Andy stared for an instant, and then tried to tug her weapon free. Darman pushed the blade up, letting his grip slide further down to gain leverage. He took a step closer. Andy deactivated the sabre.

Darman moved faster. He cannoned into Andy and grabbed for the weapon's hilt. She hung on and tried to pull away but he wrenched it free and stepped back a pace. They both stood, panting.

'You're strong,' Darman rasped, 'for a little girl.' He fumbled with the lightsabre, not taking his eyes off of Andy. The blade came to life with a hiss. Andy took a step back. Darman's beskad lay between them. She tried not to look at it, focussing only on her own weapon in his hands, and began to move to her left, circling him just out of reach.

He tried a few jabs and cuts, little more than feints, awkward with the weightless blade. She would get no better chance.

Andy dived for the sword, trying to will it towards her hand. Darman put his foot on the blade and brought the lightsabre down. She was almost falling, unable to break her own momentum.

She was thrown backwards. As the blue blade dug into the ground in front of her, she looked up to see Kaitos duck a blaster bolt from behind him and turn back to face his adversary.

Darman was looking at Kaitos as well. As the Jedi master's lightsabre flashed to intercept a fresh salvo of shots, the Mandalorian began to sprint.

Kaitos half turned, but beyond him the second attacker was still firing. He blocked, then aimed a cut at the blaster: a burst of sparks exploded. In the same moment Andy's lightsabre touched his right shoulder blade, and sank almost up to the hilt.

Andy had got to her hands and knees. As Darman pulled back her sabre, Kaitos crumpled to the ground. He made no sound. The green flame of his lightsabre vanished.

She seized the beskad that still lay on the floor and pushed herself to her feet. Darman raised her lightsabre over her Kaitos's prone form. With a wordless cry, she charged. Darman turned, lightsabre raised.

The beskad was twice as heavy as a lightsabre, though half the length, and the heavy tip wanted to turn downwards. The hilt was too small for two hands but she gripped her right wrist in her left hand and found the strength to keep it balanced.

Darman levelled the sabre at her and she skidded to a halt, out of his reach and far beyond her own. She chopped at the blade, knocking it sideways, and tried to step closer. He swung back towards her in a wild sweep which she barely parried, and then her right arm was seized in an iron grip.

He only held her with his off hand, but Darman's grip was impossibly strong. He squeezed even harder, and twisted sharply. Andy bit her tongue to choke off a scream as bone crunched. Her antagonist continued to twist the broken arm until his sword fell from her suddenly nerveless fingers. She tasted blood in her mouth. Finally, Darman released her and she stepped backwards. No-one moved for a long moment.

She dropped to her knees and snatched at the fallen blade left-handed. The hilt was in her grasp, but Darman's booted foot slammed down, grinding her hand against the ground. She gritted her teeth, determined not to make a sound of weakness.

When at last he moved his foot she tried to wrap her fingers around the beskad's hilt, but they would not grip. She managed to get to her feet and faced him. She could not see his face, but she imagined it was proud and icily satisfied. She lowered her head and lunged forwards.

Andy's skull met her adversary's armoured stomach with a smack, but he barely swayed. She thrashed her head violently and succeeded in catching his sword hand with the tip of one horn. The lightsabre winked out as it clattered to the ground.

Darman hesitated for only the briefest instant. He seized one of Andy's horns in each hand, and forced her downwards. She tried to wrench herself free, but his incredible grip would not be broken. She fell back to her knees. Darman's hands pushed down further, and twisted.

She felt the cracking as much as she heard it. And then the bone snapped, and pain exploded through her skull. She felt only a dull tugging as Darman twisted and pulled until the last fibres of horn snapped. Hot blood was trickling down her face, into her left eye.

She realised that he now only held her by one hand, and twisted sideways, shaking her head savagely. The iron grip on her remaining horn intensified and she stopped dead. He forced her still downwards. She knelt before him, unresisting, hanging her head. Her arms hung useless in front of her.

'Good girl.' The pressure on her head vanished as he released her. Dimly, she saw him bend down, lift something from the ground. His beskad. 'You have courage.' He raised the weapon. 'A pity that you're a damaged specimen now.'

Andy cringed away from the threat of the blade, twisting to the left to shield her defenceless side. She heard a snort of derision.

She thrust upwards.

The point of her horn made contact just outside the edge of the armour plate that protected Darman's stomach, and punched through the tough weave of the suit that supported it. As she got her legs beneath her she drove harder, forcing inwards and upwards.

A choking scream issued from her enemy's throat. She kept pushing until her horn was buried in his belly to the point where it curved up towards her forehead. Fire lanced along her back as he chopped down with his beskad, lacking the angle or the strength to inflict more than flesh wounds.

The wet heat of blood soaked her robes, and she couldn't tell how much was her own and how much his. She wrenched her head to the left with all her remaining strength and the blade-sharp last eight inches of horn tore through flesh and clothing, freeing her.

She staggered backwards, drenched with blood and filth. A length of something bloody and obscene flopped from her head to the floor. More spilled from the wound. Darman clutched at his stomach as he fell to his knees, and then to the floor, and then motionless.

Andy stumbled half blinded towards her master's still form. She tried to kneel beside him but fell heavily and could not hold back a cry as her broken arm hit the ground, flung out by reflex. Her head swum.

She heard the hiss of a lightsabre igniting, and green light glowed in her vision. She looked up. A Mandalorian in blue and red armour stood over them, wielding Kaitos' sabre. Andy got one foot underneath her and pushed. She stood upright, shaking with the effort, and took three wavering steps to place herself between her fallen master and the attacker.

She braced her unsteady legs and faced him.


	4. Chapter 4

The attacker brought Kaitos' lightsabre into a guard. Andy stood her ground, panting with effort. She tensed, ready to evade a strike, and lost her balance.

The man in armour took a pace backwards, still standing ready to attack. Andy recovered, this time shifting her body slightly to the left to counter the missing weight on that side. She braced herself again.

She looked up. He had not moved. She could see nothing of his face; she reached out with her mind, trying to read an intention under the blank of the helmet. Her legs felt like rubber: perhaps he was simply waiting for her to collapse.

The green lightsabre flickered out.

The Mandalorian kept the hilt raised, his thumb hovering ready to activate it again, but he relaxed his fighting stance and held up his empty right hand, palm outwards. Andy didn't move.

'There's no need for another fight, youngster.'

'Slaver,' Andy spat. She glared at him, through the eye that wasn't gummed shut with blood, 'I'd rather make you kill me.'

He nodded and then without a word, very slowly crouched to the ground, still watching Andy. When she did nothing, he finally lowered the lightsabre, reversing the hilt so that the blade would point towards himself. Cautiously, he stretched out his arm, and laid the weapon down close to Kaitos' hand.

He stood up, unarmed, and backed away. Andy stared. He reached the side door of the building and disappeared, shutting it behind him.

Andy wiped blood from her eyes with her left forearm as she turned back to her master. His right hand loosely gripped his lightsabre.

She crouched beside him. He was face down, but this close she could hear his laboured breathing. There was very little blood on his robes, of course, but the pale cloth was scorched where her lightsabre had gone through it. Her lightsabre. She looked back in the direction of the street.

It lay only a few yards away, close to the lifeless body of Kiran Darman. Her lightsabre. She reached out painfully towards it, supporting her right hand with her left arm, and pulled her lightsabre towards her across the intervening distance.

Her right arm hung all but useless, but her left was strong as far as the heel of her hand: she just couldn't grip. She pushed at Kaitos' shoulder to turn him over, and he stirred as she did so, meeting her eyes for an instant. His face was ashen, blue around the lips.

'Andi... ana,' He barely made a sound, gasping for breath in the middle of the single word. His eyes closed.

'Master Kaitos!' Andy put her hand on his shoulder again and shook him. She slid her arm under his neck, gritting her teeth as her hand scraped on the rough ground, and raised his head. 'Kaitos please, don't...' She didn't finish the sentence. Kaitos' eyes flickered open again, only for a moment, and then he lay still apart from the desperate rise and fall of his chest.

Andy shut her eyes, breathed deeply in and out, and opened them again. 'Kaitos, Master, I can do this. It will be alright, I'll get us out of here. I can do it: I'm strong.'

She worked her arm below his shoulders, hissing through her teeth at the pressure on her hand, and pulled him into a sitting position. She stopped to catch her breath, cradling the old man to her chest. His head fell forward onto her shoulder, and the blood that covered her robe began to soak into his clothes as well.

She hunched down, putting his waist level with her shoulders, and heaved upwards with her good arm around him. He was light, even for a human. He wasn't a lot taller than her and she must weigh more. He was draped over her left shoulder; she kept her arm around his legs, leaning to the right to balance his weight, and got to her feet.

She staggered sideways and was stopped by the wall of the alley. Her broken arm swung into the barrier and she bit back a cry. The sudden movement had made her head spin. She leaned against the wall for a moment, her legs braced against the dead weight of her master's body; her brain cleared, though her vision was still blurred. With her arm around Kaitos she couldn't reach to wipe the blood from her eyes.

She took a few nervous steps and kept moving for fear of toppling over if she stopped and tried to regain her balance. She turned right as she reached the street, retracing their earlier steps. A fresh rivulet of blood trickled down her face, tasting of metal and salt as it ran over her lips. One leg buckled as she took a step, and she kept herself from falling to her knees with a great effort.

She was gasping for breath with every step as though she'd sprinted five times the distance she'd staggered. There were people ahead of her, vague figures moving and speaking. Someone approached them.

'You need help.' The half-seen person reached towards her, towards Kaitos' inert form. Andy pulled away, staggering backwards and keeping her feet with an effort of will. 'Steady,' the newcomer said. 'Come with me, I can take you to a medic.' He laid a hand on Kaitos' back.

Andy shied away again. 'I'm strong.'

'I can see you are. But let me help before you drop him.' He didn't give her another chance to refuse, pulling Kaitos away from her. 'Follow me.'

* * *

'Help my master.'

'You need treatment too. You're losing blood.'

'It's not mine,' Andy said, at the same moment a heavy red glob fell from her face to her arm. 'Mostly.' Even that was probably untrue by now. 'Him first, I can wait. I'm strong.'

The doctor began to examine Kaitos, under Andy's fierce gaze. 'I think he'll live.' She began to remove the wrapping from a square white pad. 'It will be a day or two before we know for sure but bacta is powerful stuff.'

'A patch?' Andy jumped to her feet, 'That's not enough, he's badly hurt.'

'It's enough to keep him alive. You're not on Coruscant any more, kiddo. I won't say there are no tanks in this city but I don't know where you'll find one that someone will let you use.' She turned her back on Andy and dressed Kaitos' wound with bacta patches on his back and chest where the lightsabre had entered and left. Andy sat back down on the adjacent cot.

'I won't promise he'll be as good as new. Your damned lightsabres burn as well as cut, and at his age, too. But he's made it this far and I think he'll pull through.' She covered him with a rough red blanket. 'And now you.'

Andy submitted to have her wounds cleaned and dressed with bacta patches and her arms splinted over the healing pads, and accepted a dose of ryll to ease the pain of the broken bones. She didn't take her eyes off her master.

'Lie down. You need rest.'

Andy lay down obediently, until the medic left the room. When she returned some time later she shook her head but didn't bother to protest. Andy was sitting beside Kaitos, his hand in hers. The young Jedi was dosing, and didn't look up.

* * *

Andy awoke to her hand being squeezed. She looked up, into Kaitos' blue eyes, tired but clear. He was pale but the blue colour had left his face.

'Andiana,'

'Master Kaitos, I'm sorry.' Kaitos closed his mouth and waited. 'I let him get my lightsabre. He grabbed the blade. You warned me about beskar. He was too strong for me, I couldn't keep hold of it. He shouldn't have been that strong, he snapped my arm with one hand. And...' Andy bit her lip and fell silent.

Kaitos squeezed her hand again. 'Tell me what happened after that.' Though he wasn't fighting for air as he had been, he still had to pause for breath too often.

'Darman's dead. I killed him. The other one, he let us go, Master. He could have killed me and then you but he let us go.'

'He could have killed me while you were battling Darman.'

'I don't know why he let us go. We're safe now, I think. We're still on Cheravh, someone brought us to a doctor, I had to trust him, and her, but I think we're safe here. We can leave when you're strong enough.' She flexed the fingers of her right hand. 'I can fly the ship, I think.'

Kaitos lay back, closing his eyes for a few moments. 'For now, we should both rest. Have patience, Andiana.'

'I'm strong.'

'So you are, and you have done more than could have been asked of you, and you have been sorely hurt. I think we are safe for the time being, so you should rest. If trouble finds us, we will face it, and no better for being exhausted.' He shut his eyes again and said nothing more. Andy lay down on her cot but her eyes stayed resolutely open.


	5. Chapter 5

_**Author's note:** You all thought I'd abandoned this, didn't you? This was a tricky chapter, and life got in the way for a bit. I hope that future updates will be more timely._

* * *

Andiana pulled off her boots and stood up, burying her toes in the grass and digging her claws into the rich mud beneath. She laughed, her eyes sparkling.

'There are grasslands on Klatooine, aren't there? I suppose they're not quite the same as this.'

The girl nodded, and immediately raised a hand to her broken horn, a shadow flickering across her face. She recovered a moment later.

'Not in Belletani lands,' she said. 'The desert's our place, and the savannahs are all Hutt land anyway.' She turned around, gazing across the meadow to the distant blba forest.

Kaitos smiled, 'Go on, explore. Enjoy yourself.' He lay back in his chair. Andiana moved a little way off, staring around her at the plants and buzzing insect life. She shuffled around, glancing back at him from time to time.

'Stay this side of the tree-line, Andiana.' She looked up sharply, turning her head from Kaitos to the forest in the distance, and bit her lip. He met her eyes and smiled at her. 'Go on, young one. I will be perfectly alright. Try not to fall in the river.'

Andiana turned fully around, taking in the acres of grass, and when she faced Kaitos again her face was lit up. He watched her run off barefoot across the meadow.

* * *

Kaitos climbed on board the speeder and motioned for Andiana to get on behind him. She held on tightly as he started the engine and pulled away from the cabin. Woods and open grasslands zipped past, and once they skirted the edge of a small lake. A pair of brith swam lazily through the sky, easily outstripped by the speeder.

A strip of dull yellow edged into view on the horizon, growing as they approached until a line of sand dunes loomed above them. Kaitos stopped the speeder in their lee and the two Jedi dismounted. The faint sound of breakers reached his ears. Andiana stood quite still with her head cocked to one side, listening. She sniffed the air.

Kaitos began to climb the dune, and was soon gasping for breath. He stopped, sinking into the loose sand, and put a hand to his chest, below his right shoulder. Andiana caught him up.

'Let me help you, Master.'

He laid an arm on her shoulder, letting her take some of his weight, and she set off again, towing him up the slope. 'Thank you, Andiana. I'm not quite my old self yet.'

They reached the top of the dune and Andiana stopped in her tracks. Kaitos stood beside her as she stared ahead, to one side and then the other, at the blue that filled half the horizon.

'That's the sea?'

The girl didn't make a move towards the shore, but when he started down the slope she followed. He stopped above the tideline and pulled off his boots and outer robe, leaving himself bare-chested in just a pair of loose trousers. He stepped forward onto the damp sand, and on towards the water line until the surf lapped around his ankles with each wave.

Andiana had removed her boots as well, and stood barefooted on the beach, but remained fully dressed above the reach of the waves. Kaitos held out a hand, beckoning her on, but she shook her head and took a step backwards.

He walked back above the tideline, dry sand sticking to his feet, and sat down. Andiana squatted on her heels beside him, trailing her hands in the warm sand.

'Are you afraid, Andiana?'

'No.' She answered immediately, but then bit her lip. Kaitos said nothing until she spoke again, 'I don't know. I don't want to go in the water, there's no reason to. It's not even good water, you can't drink it.'

Kaitos laid a hand on her shoulder. 'Others would have been taught not to go into the desert. The ocean is dangerous, but you can be safe there if you know how. I always loved to swim, even when I was very young. It's one of the few things I remember well from my early days here, before I was taken to the Temple.'

Andiana stood up. 'I want to go in,' she said.

The water swirled around their knees as a wave swept up the shore, and sucked sand from under their feet as it retreated. Andiana gasped and flung out her arms. Kaitos put a hand on her back.

'It's cold.'

'It'll feel warmer when you're right in.' He took a few steps further, and she followed, lifting her arms above the water as it reached her waist. They forged on, until they were almost shoulder deep. Andiana stood on tiptoe as a swell rolled past, tipping back her head to keep it clear. Kaitos let it lift him off his feet and set him back down, and with the next wave she copied him, bouncing gently with each roller.

'This time, lean forwards, and don't put your feet down,' Kaitos said as a wave lifted them clear of the bottom. He let his own legs drift backwards and floated easily on his stomach. 'Push down with your hands to keep your head up.'

The waves pushed them gradually back towards the shore as they floated. 'Now kick your feet.' He did so himself and drew ahead of Andiana, turning his head back to watch her dog-paddle after him. 'You're swimming.'

She mistimed a stroke and caught a wave in the face, but carried doggedly on, coughing, to draw level with Kaitos as he climbed the face of a swell with a lazy breast-stroke. She pushed through the wave, shutting her eyes and mouth tightly until she drew clear. She was panting hard, blinking salt from her eyes. He turned around, and motioned for her to do the same, heading back to the beach.

Kaitos, still dripping, pulled his robe back on. He watched with a smile as his padawan crouched on the dry sand and began to dust handfuls of it over the fine scales of her arms, drying herself off.

'I usually use the water to wash off the sand.'

Andiana laughed, 'I couldn't understand that at first when they brought me to Coruscant.'

Kaitos sat down gingerly beside her. 'You did well.'

'You do that for fun?'

'You might like it more when you can do it more easily. Or not, but you should learn anyway. You'll see water on many worlds and if you ever find yourself with no transport being able to cross it could save your mission – or even your life.'

Andiana looked at him, her forehead creasing, 'You weren't out of breath at all.'

Kaitos nodded. 'And I'm an old man, still recovering from a bad injury.'

'You're strong, though.'

'I wasn't using that strength; I was just swimming.'

'Then what?'

He gazed out over the sea for a minute before answering. 'However strong you are, the ocean is stronger. If you try to fight the waves, you'll always lose eventually: they'll tire you out and drown you if you keep trying.

'When you stood and let the waves lift you, that wasn't hard work. As long as you kept in time with their rhythm it took very little effort. And when you lifted your feet and floated, you still moved with the waves: if we hadn't started swimming they would have carried us right back to the beach. As long as you moved with them, they let you slip past or even helped you.

'But when you started to move, you fought against the waves. You have to listen to the sea and obey its will, then you can use its power instead of pitting your own against it.'

Andiana bit her lip, her eyes downcast. Kaitos put a hand on her shoulder.

'It's the easiest way to swim, but also the hardest. Anyone will do it instinctively, so you'll always be able to keep yourself afloat without learning any special technique. But you felt how quickly it tired you. Next time I will teach you an easier way.'

* * *

A lone blba tree stood a few hundred metres from the house. At the moment it was being assailed by a robed figure with a stick. As Kaitos walked across the grass towards it, the young Belletani somersaulted close to twice her own height, striking out at one of her adversary's rigid limbs.

The blow made the leaves rattle and would pave taken off the limb if it had been made with a lightsabre. She ducked under another branch, and landed, staggering to the right. She threw down her stick and charged with head lowered at the trunk of the tree.

'Did you win?' Kaitos asked as he came into earshot.

Andiana was rubbing her neck. She turned to face him, scowling. 'The tree cut me in two while I was falling over.'

'It will take time, young one. You set yourself a hard challenge there.'

'If I can keep my balance through the Ataru move, I'll know I can for anything else.'

'True enough,' Kaitos replied. 'But if you will go straight to the hardest tests, you mustn't expect too much from yourself too soon.' He glanced up at the sky, the haze of summer cloud growing substantial enough to blot out the blue. 'I think it's going to rain.'

Andiana screwed up her face and started back towards the house without another word. Kaitos walked after her, until she looked over her shoulder and stopped until he caught up.

She held herself to his more sedate pace. 'Master,' she broke out, 'how long will we stay here?'

'Until we're both ready to return.' He was silent for a few moments.

'You're getting better.'

He smiled, 'A lot better. But what about you?'

'Me?'

Kaitos said nothing.

'I just need a bit more practice. There's nothing wrong with me.' They reached the door of the cabin. Andiana opened it and stood aside for him to go through first. 'I'm fine,' she continued to protest. 'I'm young, I heal quickly. I wasn't hurt that badly.' A frown creased her brow and she raised a hand to her missing horn.

Kaitos nodded. 'I think your wounds went deeper than mine, Andiana.'

'I'm not zayifka!' She turned away, her head dipping, but regained her composure and faced him again, eyes narrowed. 'I'm not. There's nothing wrong with me. I still have... I can still'

'You can still headbutt walls. Though you turn your head a little and it hurts your neck.' Andiana's face darkened. 'But I'm sure you know your own limits.' Kaitos sat down, and motioned for Andiana to sit beside him. 'It goes beyond the physical wounds though, doesn't it?'

Andiana looked up, her sharp yellow gaze meeting his. 'All I had to do was guard him. He was disarmed, it was easy. I let him take my lightsabre, and he wouldn't even fight me, I wasn't a threat. I could have got us both killed, you almost were, and I...' She reached up to the stump of her horn again. 'I can't mend it. I failed and I can never make it right. Master Berand was right. Anton wouldn't have let you down.'

She shut her eyes, taking several deep breaths. Kaitos laid a hand on her shoulder. 'Andiana, do you think that I – that any Jedi - reached knighthood, let alone mastery, without ever failing at any task, or making any mistake that could not be undone?'

Andiana looked away.

'We all carry our failures with us. We must learn to accept them, and learn from them. I wouldn't have looked for such a dramatic beginning to our partnership, in truth, but I'm learning that Andiana Rengen doesn't do things by halves. And from what I've seen, she doesn't give up, either.'

Andiana bit her lip. Kaitos waited.

'I did give up,' she said at last. 'He was going to break the other one, I could feel it, and I couldn't do... I didn't know what to do. So I stopped fighting. Once he thought I was beaten, he let go, and then I saw how I could kill him. So I tricked him. And I didn't care, as long as I killed him.' She hung her head. 'I was angry.'

Neither of them spoke for a minute.

'Andiana, did you think this would be easy?' The girl turned away. Kaitos went on, 'During your training, did your teachers tell you that becoming a Jedi would be simple? When you passed the Initiate trials, did they say there would be no more challenges?' Andiana shook her head, but didn't look up. 'When my old student yGrev allowed you to learn the Juyo style of combat, did he say that was going to be easy?'

'No, it's the hardest.'

'Indeed, and not only physically. It requires more discipline and self-knowledge than any of the other forms. And it is the most dangerous, to you as well as those you face.'

'You taught Master Berand?'

Kaitos smiled. 'He was my first padawan, when I was a very young knight. If I thought that, having passed my trials, I had finished learning, I was soon proved wrong. I learned nearly as much as he did from our time together. But I cannot have done too badly in teaching him, in spite of my inexperience, for he is a very accomplished Jedi.

'There have not been many masters as skilled in as many forms of lightsabre combat as yGrev Berand.'

'Is he better than you?'

'Certainly. At the time he finished his traing, I believe I was still his superior in Soresu – not that we ever put it to a direct test: two skilled users of the Way of the Mynock could spar for quite a long time without any result. But even then he was my master in several other styles. Now, I am quite sure he could beat me at my own game.'

Raindrops began to patter on the windows. Andiana looked round, and grimaced.

Kaitos smiled, 'It keeps the grass green.

'Young one, the path of a Jedi is never an easy one, and the path you have chosen will be especially hard. Not least because there are many of the Order who will disapprove, who will say that it goes against the Jedi Code. There are many who believe that there are only six forms of lightsabre combat that are suitable for a Jedi, and the seventh should never be taught or permitted. And more who say merely that it is too dangerous to teach it to anyone who shows tendencies towards aggression.

'Many of the same Jedi also say you should never practise deception, and they will look badly on you for the kind of thing you did on Cheravh. Some would even forbid tricks like the one you used to beat your young friend when we first met.'

'But you think they're wrong?'

'I think there are very few absolutes. It's not wrong to say that Juyo is dangerous. If you use it, you will walk the line between the light side and the dark. yGrev took a great risk letting you learn it: either it would give you the channel you needed to focus and control your emotions, or it would be your path away from the Jedi way.

'As for deception, for the most part it is something you should not allow yourself to do. I don't think it's fair to describe any trick used in a fight as deception, since I've yet to meet anyone who objects to such things who isn't happy to feint left and strike right. But there are not many circumstances where feigning surrender would be acceptable.'

'I'm sorry, master. I'll try to do better.'

He laid a hand on the girl's shoulder. 'That's an improvement over despairing of ever mending your mistakes. But I said there are not many circumstances. After Darman got your lightsabre, I don't think there's much else you could or should have done than what you did.

'I'm proud of you, Andiana, and yGrev was right to teach you as he did.'


	6. Chapter 6

A tow-headed figure was wielding a yellow lightsabre as Andy entered the training room. Two younglings circled around him cautiously, their own blades at the ready. He turned to his right to face the little Twi'lek who had leapt high in a sudden attack. Anton deflected the blade with a forceful block that sent the blue-skinned boy tumbling over in mid-air to land behind him.

His other opponent stepped forward warily, her sabre tracing circles in the air as she hesitated.

The Padawan's focus shifted. He took a quick step sideways away from the girl's reach, spinning around, but the Twi'lek was already moving with him, keeping at his back, and at the same time he reached out and the point of the training lightsabre made contact just below the young man's ribs.

Anton deactivated his weapon and held up his hands. Master Berand stepped forward from where he had been watching the fight.

"That was well fought, Sal. But," he continued, raising a finger at the victor, "a Cho mok was open to you just as easily as the Shiak. You would have killed your opponent if you'd been using a real weapon, when you could have disabled him. Remember that next time."

"Yes, Master Berand," Sal said, bowing his head.

Anton saw Andy watching them, and excused himself.

"I thought you were away with Rel Noor," Andy said.

"We got back today. Master Rel sent me down here: it was a diplomatic assignment and there wasn't any chance to practice."

"I was going to offer you a real fight, but maybe I should ask Berand's class instead."

* * *

Andy twisted the power control on her lightsabre and activated the blade, testing it gingerly on the scaly skin of her arm. "I don't like the practice ones," she explained. "Mine has better balance."

"Alright." Anton laid down the training sabre he'd been using and reached for his own curved hilt from his belt. Its green blade hissed into life and he held it up in a momentary salute before sweeping it down to his side, ready for battle.

In a moment, he was raising it again to counter Andy's first rush. She made half a dozen quick strikes, but each time the blue blade was turned aside by the green. She paused in her attack, and Anton took a step backwards and assumed his guard again.

Her next attack was slightly more measured; she feinted left before cutting sharply to her right, but her opponent failed to take the bait and her sabre skittered harmlessly off his. She kept up a series of strikes, circling to try to find a weak point in the defence.

She increased her pace, and then leapt into the air over the head of the smaller Padawan. Off-guard, Anton was forced to duck, Andy's lightsabre skimming his hair. She landed behind him, but he was already spinning to meet her next attack.

She stopped short, leaving him cutting at thin air, and begin circling again, faster this time, maintaining a barrage of jabs and feints but never seriously attacking.

Anton never moved from the spot, turning to block every blow with the absolute minimum of movement. Andy's patience wore out and she jumped high again, slicing downwards in a two-handed blow.

Finally, Anton moved. He dodged two fast paces to his left, and as the momentum of her strike carried it harmlessly past his shoulder he aimed a cut at her head. She tried to twist away, but the lightsabre caught her horn and the blow knocked her sideways. At the same moment she felt a tug on her ankle, jerking her further off balance, though Anton's free hand was nowhere near her.

She landed in a crouch, her weapon already back in a high guard, and in a moment she had found her balance again. Her opponent had taken the brief opportunity to press her closely, and she was forced to back off before she could begin again, breathing a little harder. She reached up to the spot where Anton's sabre had made contact, and her eyes flickered up and to the other side for a split second. Her brow lowered.

She lunged straight forwards, not bothering to feint but attacking with every stroke. Anton's slight figure became the centre of a storm of blue fire. Wherever Andy struck his lightsabre was there to intercept the blow, but he took a step backwards, and then another, his blocks becoming a little less precise. She grinned, and drew on her body to find yet more pace, seeking to overwhelm his guard.

She aimed a horizontal cut at shoulder height, and staggered to the left as she met no resistance. Instead of parrying, Anton ducked under her blade, and before she could recover she felt the sting of the low-powered lightsabre on her upper arm. Anton took a step back, his lightsabre hissing out, but Andy merely shifted hers to her left hand and tucked her right arm into her belt. She took up guard again.

Anton smiled, "Alright." The green blade snapped back into life.

Andy flashed a blow at his head the instant his guard was up. It was blocked, but she was already moving right and aiming another attack. Anton intercepted that as well, and easily flicked her blade aside. She jumped back out of his range, scowling, and brought her weapon back into line. Anton waited, a blond-haired statue.

He turned her next blow too, and pressed forward as she tried to back away, keeping inside her guard and bringing his weapon down precisely on the hilt of her own.

The blue lightsabre flickered out as Andy cast it aside. She lowered her head and charged. Her opponent stepped to his right and reached forward almost lazily, too late for Andy to check her rush before it carried her onto the blade.

She straightened up, pressing her hand to her ribs, scowling for a moment, but then the clouds parted. She pulled her right arm free and bent to pick up her sabre. "Good fight."

"You had me all but beaten," Anton replied. "If I hadn't found an opening, in a few more moments you would have had me. Good fight."

"Indeed, Padawan." A woman with a black mask and goggles covering most of her copper-skinned face stepped forward from the doorway. She was slightly taller than Andy. "It was neatly done at the end but your lack of momentum was almost your undoing."

Anton nodded and slipped his lightsabre back onto his belt. "Yes, Master Rel."

Andy scowled. "He won, didn't he? He never beats me on the offensive."

Rel Noor frowned, the tusked protrusions around her mouth flexing. Anton touched Andy lightly on the shoulder, and stepped forward to place himself between his friend and the Kel Dor. Both of them towered over him. He inclined his head briefly towards the Jedi Master before speaking.

"Master, I had the advantage of knowing my opponent. Aggression is Andy's strength and isn't mine: I would have played into her hands by trying to beat her at her own game. Maintaining an attack aggressive enough to overwhelm my defence was almost certain to leave her open eventually – a calculated risk which paid off."

"True, but the purpose of practice is to improve your skills. When there is no cost to failure you should work most on the skills you are least adept in."

"Yes, Master Rel."

"Come with me. Padawan Rengen, I'm sure there must be something you should be doing. Or something you shouldn't but will anyway." Noor nodded curtly and turned to leave, Anton following her.

* * *

"Tell me we're not going to another swamp."

"You did very well on Naboo, Andiana."  
"You enjoyed it."

Kaitos smiled. "Some parts. But I think you might enjoy some parts of Utapau more than I will."

Andy's face lit up, "We're going to the desert?"

"I'd be lying if I said I don't hope not to spend much time actually out in the desert, but we may need to. I'll be relying on you."

"I won't let you down, Master."

Kaitos passed a datapad to Andy and tapped an image on the screen. A small hologram of the figure appeared, slowly rotating: a lanky form with an elongated face and eyes protruding from the top of his head. His ears hung down his back in a fleshy cape that overlapped his vest.

"Master Kaitos, does this have anything to do with what we found on Naboo?"

"That," the old Master said, "is what we have to find out." He gestured towards the hologram and Andy looked at the flickering blue Gungan again. A short bar in his right hand had a long shimmering blade.

"A Force user?"

Kaitos nodded. "He has been seen using a lightsabre with a red blade." He tapped the datapad again and the hologram vanished. Text scrolled onto the screen. "There are other reports too: people unsure of what happened after this individual spoke with them. Objects moving about inexplicably."

"I've never seen a red lightsabre."

"No. The crystals that grow in the caves of Ilum or other worlds are most often green, blue, or yellow. Sometimes other colours, but very rarely red.

"But Kyber crystals can also be artificially grown, and these synthetic crystals are rarely anything but that colour. They can be unstable, but also very powerful, and it's said that they may be slightly more attuned to the Dark Side of the Force. Red sabres have an unpleasant reputation, but all it really means is that this weapon was not constructed by a Jedi. We guard most sources of natural crystals quite jealously."

Andy flicked the screen with a fingertip, scrolling briefly through the text. She hit the end and tapped another image, popping up a hologram of a globe. She made a circular motion with her finger and the planet began to spin.

Kaitos touched the pad gently to bring it to a halt, and pointed out a shaded area surrounded by a handful of markers. "Places we think this Gungan has been seen. He seems to come and go from someplace in the desert. Some of the sightings are more certain identifications than others, but there aren't many Gungans on a planet like Utapau."

"He must have a reason for being there. He can't find the desert comfortable."

Kaitos nodded and waited for Andy to continue.

"So, we need to find his bolt-holt and work out what he's doing."

"It must be somewhere in that region."

Andy frowned, "That's big. It's easy to vanish in the desert." She looked up at Kaitos, who smiled but stayed silent. "So we'll have to find some way to narrow it down before we head out looking. Or else find him and follow his tracks."

"I agree. But we'll have to start somewhere. Where do you suggest we land?"

Andy stared at the map for a minute. She traced the shaded area with her finger. Then she looked up sharply. "How many spaceports are there on Utapau?"

"Good." Kaitos put a hand on her shoulder with a smile. "Only one, in Pau City. After we land there, where do you suggest we start looking?"

* * *

Andy stood aside from the cockpit, looking at Kaitos, but he gestured for her to go on. She made a face but stepped into the little ship and settled herself in the pilot's seat. "I can get us to Utapau, but you should probably take over before we land."

Kaitos smiled, "I have every confidence in you." He got in beside her. "I'll fly on the way back and get us around on the planet, if you pilot all the way to Pau City and land without any help."

"But the landing pads are in a sinkhole. I've never tried to do that before."

"I've seen you do manoeuvres just as difficult."

Andy bit her lip. Kaitos laid a hand on her shoulder. "You have plenty of time on the way to get the feel of the ship, and I'll be right here if you need help."

Andy started the engines. The craft lifted a few feet and hung uncertainly in the air.

"Get us out of the atmosphere, and on the way I'll tell you about the time I crashed a racing pod."

The ship listed a little to the left as Andy turned to face Kaitos, her expression incredulous. He smiled, "You aren't the only one ever to have accidents when you're learning. Try not to have one now though." The ship levelled as Andy turned her attention back to the controls and then accelerated sharply upwards.


End file.
